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Re: core's decision on modular kernels



On Wed, 21 Sep 2011, Martin S. Weber wrote:
On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 07:55:38AM +0200, Alan Barrett wrote:
- A port's MONOLITHIC kernel should include features that
   traditionally would have been present in a non-modular GENERIC
   kernel, and it may or may not include "options MODULAR", at the
   portmaster's discretion.

Huh? Would it be possible please to get a more detailed rationale
behind allowing "options MODULAR" in a MONOLITHIC kernel, if all
ports using modules already offer MODULAR and GENERIC?

The main difference between MODULAR and MONOLITHIC would be that
MONOLITHIC has built-in support for almost everything considered stable
and useful, whereas MODULAR might expect to load a lot of modules at run
time.  MONOLITHIC might still not have absolutely everything built-in,
and "options MODULAR" allows it to load additional modules at run time,
if the portmaster decides that this would be useful.

I use a MONOLITHIC kernel with "options MODULAR" to allow loading of a
module that contains the root file system as an md(4) image.

--apb (Alan Barrett)


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